National politics? Distant dream for Naidu
Chandrababu Naidu is rueing the day when as an important constituent of the NDA government, he failed to ask then prime minister A B Vajpayee for dismissal of Narendra Modi in 2002 when Gujarat was burning. Instead, Naidu bargained for an extra allocation of rice for AP. Result: Modi consolidated his position in Gujarat, but Naidu lost his grip over Andhra Pradesh.
Elections 2009 have put the Telugu Desam party (TDP) in its place once again. The electorate gave the regional party 93 seats, making it sit in the opposition ranks for the second time running. The elections also greatly reduced the role of its president N Chandrababu Naidu in national politics by giving him just six Lok Sabha seats. “It is a message to Naidu to reinvent the party. The party did not get a single minority vote,” a political analyst said. AP has 294 assembly seats and 42 Lok Sabha seats.
Till Friday, Naidu was harbouring the hopes of returning as chief minister. In fact, during the last phase of campaigning, he had declared at several public meetings that he was the next chief minister. His misplaced confidence stemmed from two factors, one stitching up a grand alliance with the TRS and the left parties and two, announcing a series of sops including free colour TV and cash transfer scheme.
In hindsight, the grand alliance actually spelt doom for the TDP. In Telangana, the people soundly rejected the TRS with whom Naidu had struck the alliance. The results showed that the TRS lost most of the seats it contested to the Congress, implying that the electorate had rejected the party as well as its championing the separate state. “In fact, the TDP would have fared much better than now had it gone alone in the polls,” admitted a TDP leader. The TDP won more seats in Telangana than the TRS.
The second factor of free sops too did not work for Naidu. Apart from free colour TV, Naidu had promised Rs 2,000 per month for BPL families, Rs 1,500 per month for poor families and Rs 1,000 per month for middle-class families.
But by giving the TDP more than its tally of 47 the last time around, the electorate has ensured that the TDP and Naidu stay politically alive. The election results have also ensured that he has no significant role to play in the centre. “Not only the TDP, the entire so called ‘Third Front’ has been rejected,” a leader said.
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in coming 2014 elections definately BABU will be Chief Minister.